Detained Migrant Kids Scrub Toilets, Obey Soul-Crushing Rules

The nearly 3,000 migrant children housed in detention centers across the country under President Trump’s zero-tolerance border policies reportedly live under a strict regime where they are not allowed to run or touch other children and crying is discouraged. Despite an array of different settings depending on which facility each child is held in, numerous children interviewed by The New York Times described a world in which kids are generally discouraged from acting like kids. Children are reportedly not allowed to touch one another—even if it is a sibling. Sharing food is a no-no, as well as running, sitting on the floor, and using nicknames, according to the report. Some children also described early-morning wake-up calls followed by a list of chores that includes scrubbing toilets. Children who misbehave reportedly have their cases delayed. “If you do something bad, they report you,” Yoselyn, a Guatemalan girl at a facility in Texas, told The Times. “And you have to stay longer.”